Join us for a special public tour of our current exhibition, Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists, featuring a guest appearance by exhibiting artist Susan Janow.
Led by Senior Educator Nicole Haroutunian, this tour offers a rare opportunity to meet the artist behind some of the most thought-provoking self-portraits on view while exploring the exhibition’s key themes and artworks.
The tour will begin in the Self-Portraits section (Jonathan and Karin Fielding Gallery) in front of Janow’s video installation.
Please email education@folkartmuseum.org for registration or for accommodation requests.
Janow will also participate in the workshop Dialogue + Studio: Meditative Grids with Susan Janow on Thursday, June 25 from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Lead support for Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists and associated public programs is provided by Elizabeth Hurtt and Douglas Branson.
About the Artist
Susan Janow approaches her drawings with a methodical and meditative focus. Beginning with an open, hand-drawn grid, she meticulously fills in each shape with fine lines that resemble faintly moving curtains when complete. This process of intensive crosshatching is precise and introspective, as Janow works with unbroken focus. Her compositions never quite fill the page, leaving a span of charged negative space underneath the grid. Although she prefers to draw primarily with black ink, at times Janow substitutes or includes blocks of color with intuitive choices. When working sculpturally with ceramic tiles or wood, she maintains her linear rhythm while exploring other patterns and forms. Each block or tile is painted with a distinct design of dots and dashes, which read like nuanced barcodes of color when composed en masse.
A multimedia artist, Janow’s practice is expansive. She works with ink, ceramic, collage, woodwork, and textile, and she is widely recognized for her video work. Janow writes, directs, and often stars in her own short films created in Creative Growth’s Digital Media Lab. Her seminal work “Questions?” positions Janow facing the camera and looking ahead silently, while her own voiceover shifts between standard interview-like questions and personal inquiries. The viewer is left to reflect not only on their own responses, but the enigmatic motivations of the enquirer herself
Janow’s artwork is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France.